Figshare
May 26, 2026
Vladisav Jovanovic
preprint
Dreams are not hidden telegrams from the unconscious. They are pressure maps.This paper argues that dreams should be read as temporary simulations of how the psyche routes avoidance, desire, threat, shame, memory, relation, symbol, and possible repair. A dream matters when it shows the structure of a truth waking life has not yet found a way to carry.The paper places Structural Intelligence in...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 25, 2026
Rebekka Waldesruh
preprint
This chapter is an excerpt from a larger book project on the phenomenon traditionally described as the “Dark Night of the Soul” in the writings of John of the Cross. It combines historical, phenomenological, psychological, and contemplative perspectives in order to reinterpret this classical mystical concept for a contemporary audience. While remaining grounded in the Catholic and monastic...
Studia Religiologica
May 20, 2026
Małgorzata Alicja Biały
This article explores ideological and worldview divisions within the esoteric milieu of Wisła in the 1930s, centred around Józef Chobot, Agnieszka Pilchowa, and Jan Hadyna. As a starting point, it takes the 1934 conflict sparked by divergent understandings of spirituality and interpretations of the Rosicrucian tradition, symbolised by a polemic in esoteric journals. The analysis highlights...
May 19, 2026
Vanessa Bibliowicz
This chapter explores the evolution of psychedelics from ancient rituals to modern neuroscience. It begins with a historical overview of their use in spiritual and communal healing, then traces the scientific discoveries that followed—from early psychiatric research to current clinical trials. The chapter then introduces how psychedelics affect the brain, especially through their impact on the...
Religions
May 18, 2026
Geoffrey Ready, Ron Cole-Turner
Recent studies show that psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD can reliably occasion spiritual or “mystical-like” experiences under supportive conditions, and the spiritual dimension of these experiences may contribute to their reported mental health benefits. Scholars have begun exploring how such experiences might relate to spiritual growth within Christian frameworks, but most theological...
Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies
May 16, 2026
D. J. Moores
Abstract: Like the body, the drum, with its immense somatic power, is colonized in Western culture, the complex cause of which is directly tied to colonialist and missionary efforts to save African slaves from the perils of their so-called demonic religious practices, which involved cultivating possession states through drum and dance rituals. Yet, there is a much better view of drummers, one...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
May 12, 2026
Lorand Bruhacs
preprint
One recurrent source of religious and mystical appearance lies in the way finite motifs resist finite closure and come to be inhabited under maximal, unconditioned, or unsurpassable forms. We call these forms limit-forms and argue that they are Husserlian horizonality under existential pressure: ordinary experience always exceeds what is presently given, but some horizons become...
Eikasía Revista de Filosofía
May 11, 2026
Gabriel Martínez Villarreal
According to William James, mystical states of consciousness are characterized, among other features, by their noetic quality, i. e., some knowledge obtained is through them. However, another common feature of mystical experiences is their ineffability. This raises an epistemological question: How can something be known, and yet cannot be expressed? Through the conceptual framework of Ludwig...
UvA-DARE
May 2, 2026
Wouter J. Hanegraaff
preprint
in: Boaz Huss (ed.), Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival (The Goldstein-Goren Library of Jewish Thought Publication No. 14), Ben Gurion University of the Negev Press: Beer-Sheva 2011, 251-266.
Journal of Childhood and Religion
May 1, 2026
Jerome W. Berryman, Cheryl V. Minor
This paper examines whether direct perception of the Divine occurs through the Protestant sacraments—bread, wine, and water—and what this implies for Christian education. Integrating theological, philosophical, psychological, and mystical perspectives, it explores how sacraments function beyond rational comprehension as symbolic and transformative vehicles. Theologians debate their role in...